Nightmare Fuel / Tower of God

Per Spoilers Off rule, all spoilers in this page are left unmarked.

General/Blogpost Information

This is an Administrator; they have total control over a space the size of a continent that is also their true form, there's at least 135 of them, and the one specifically in this picture is one of the nicer looking ones.

• Deaths in Tower Of God are scary.
  • The first test in Evankhell's Floor involves the death of two hundred Regulars, and that's just the beginning. Death is commonplace in the Tower, and so are betrayals. People will kill you if they could get the chance to climb higher. Crapsack World indeed.
  • Not to mention the other off-hand deaths like you get when the Hand of Arlene blows sky-high. There were a lot of tents around there, not just some syspencycles. Or the unknown number of Rankers Urek dusted before that, even. Let alone the two he killed in no time on-screen. Add to that the horrible thought that some of the creatures we've seen killed on and off could have some degree of intelligence even if they're being puppetiered by others...
  • The Workshop Battle arc has several disturbing deaths too. One overconfident regular gets his head destroyed by Mad Dog of Yama, and when Khun Ran uses his full might, the collateral deaths are scary (such as one guy having been obliterated except for his arm).
  • Under the Administrator's law of the Name Hunt Station, one cannot fight Kaiser unless they either- meet the specific requirements to do so, or are challenged by Kaiser first. One Leeroy Jenkins who forgot about this rule in a blind rage gets disintegrated as a result... Except that the evaporation doesn't happen all at once, but rather starts with the arm he used to attack, and then it consumes the rest of him, making it so much more painful.
• According to Word of God, the Outer Tower region has the surface area of the "continent of America", per each Floor, meaning that- assuming that the phrase means North America, the Tower has a surface area of at least over 6.5 times that of the Earth. Which brings up all sorts of questions about how such a structure even exists, or what could have possibly built it, none of which ever have been brought up in story, let alone answered. No pre-Tower history, no Creation Myth, nothing. Even when talking about The Outside God, it's completely focused on the destiny of the protagonist. The setting of most of the entire story seems to be completely inexplicable.
• Just what little facts there are about Rank 1: Phantaminum, firmly places his existence into this category.
  • Saying that he's the strongest character in Tower of God would technically only be half right, because as an Axis, he's inherently above the story, and by Word of God is completely capable of just... ending it. As one of the Top Five strongest Axes in the greater Talse Uzer story, Phantaminum predates Tower of God in both a meta and in-universe sense.
  • Not that anyone in-universe is aware of that, of course. Instead, Phantaminum is Rank 1 on account of him sieging Jahad's Palace which was home to some of the strongest Rankers, breaking through every line of defense, leaving most eye-witnesses either dead or driven insane in his wake, and reaching Jahad himself before disappearing without a fight... all without any known reason.

Season One

• Starting off Nightmare Fuel by the very first chapter, on the 1st Floor of the Tower you are greeted by Headon, a vaguely humanoid, six-fingered, rabbit-thing, whose entire face is an elongated mouth which his eyes are located in.
• The giant, steel-armored eel that Bam has to face for his first test, aside from cementing the fact that Headon's a bit of a Jerkass, serves as a great introduction to all the kinds of horrifying creatures (called Shinheuh) one can expect from the setting. Not to mention that the solution to fighting said eel was by letting it eat you.

Season Two

• The Devil of The Right Arm arc is full of these.
  • In the first chapter, the Workshop is revealed to have done countless experiments to make the weapons Regulars use on a daily basis. Human Experiments. It is implied that souls are used to create ignition weapons. The Thirteen Month series, which includes the Black March and Green April mind you, are confirmed to have souls. Let that sink in for a while.
    • YMMV on this one since the only confirmed case of this was with the Workshop members working with FUG to create the Thorn. It is explicitly mentioned that human experiments are banned by the Workshop in general. And since we don't know how Ignition weapons are made it might be better to give the Workshop the benefit of a doubt.
• And now there's Creepy Child Verdi. At first all we saw of her were a few panels of her looking spaced out, holding an octopus plushie. But in chapter 60, the first thing we see of her is her controlling the octopus (Now extremely large) and holding Prince and Miseng, saying that she liked them, will turn them into dolls and make them marry.
  • There's also Lo Po Bia Ren, the R.E.D. member. Controlling giant fish, exploding in a giant mess of wierd blood, and seems to be certifiably insane. That settles it - all anima are terrifying.
  • Heck, keep it simple: all Anima are just plain Nightmare inducing if you stop to think about it for three minutes. Even the apparently nice ones. The whole thing screams "Marionette Master" — and the perversion potential is... worrying if you get somebody swimming a little too far into the deep end or who just botches up horribly now and again.
  • And now it's confirmed that as well as being an Anima, she's an actual Puppet Master. The octopus doll is played for laughs, but Miseng being turned into a bloodthirsty, lifeless doll? Not so much. (Okay, it's played for laughs a little bit but still.)
• Ignition weapons are weapons bearing a soul that has been injected and sealed within it. A soul of a once living thing, which can vary from a sealed monster like in the case of Narmada and Krishna, to that of a human being, and many of the souls are still sentient.
  • Living Ignition weapons are people who have been injected with a specially prepared melted down ignition weapon, giving them access to its power. They can further be melted down into a fluid and injected into yet another person. Meaning said person would have the (possibly) unwilling souls of at least two others trapped within them, possibly fully aware of what is happening around them.
  • However, some more powerful ignition weapons, such as Black March, can refuse to be activated by anyone they don't like or deem unworthy.
• Hoaquin, from the Hell Train. His past, present and possible future is the epitome of Nightmare Fuel in the Tower so far, be it because of his ability -and need- to devour the souls of the living, his swordsmanship, his origin or the very sadistic cruelty with which he inflicts pain and suffering to all those below him. All so that he can become White again, the 10th Slayer of FUG and continue his reign of terror from where he left on over 600 years ago.
  • It's already bad enough when Bam, as well as the audience hears that the reason FUG revoked Hoaquin's position as a Slayer was because he killed a billion people, but it somehow gets even worse in the last round of the Dallar Show when he explains how he did it. A very long time ago as White, Hoaquin overthrew the corrupt government of a country, ruled over it himself as a just and fair king, and then eventually "died" and left his most loyal follower in charge. After a long enough time, the country became expansive, populous, but also corrupt yet again. It was then that Hoaquin secretly returned with a different identity, gathered the suppressed and impoverished, created a new country, and then declared to the people he gathered that the person who created the other country (himself) was a demon. After a while the new country he made got big enough to become a threat to old country he made, and the two went to war. And then he made sure that the countries kept waging war for countless years until they basically destroyed each other.
  Hoaquin: They endlessly waged war on one another. All they knew was hatred and pain- not reconciliation or forgiveness. Of course, there were also times when the two countries tried to stop the wars. But each time they did, I made sure that they kept hating one another. The unfair death of a hero, raping and slandering of innocent women, and the most effective thing of all- the two countries belief in me.
  • TL;DR: Hoaquin didn't actually kill a billion people, he turned two countries into massive cults and made a billion people kill each other.
• Having your name taken in Name Hunt Station means not only that you cannot leave on your own free will, but also makes you a slave to whoever owns your name. And one way to gain ownership of a person's name is to place your hands on a person's back for a few seconds... by any means necessary.
  • Kun Ran's team accepts the hospitality of a regular, except that said regular spikes their drink and knocks them out to steal their names the cheap way, and in his soliloquy makes no effort to hide his depraved ideas on what to do after stealing their names.
  • During a private conversation, Endorsi reveals that she counts on Bam to help her defeat Kaiser and regain her name, but when he refuses, an enraged Endorsi squeezes Bam and attempts to take his name then and there when he's too dumbstruck at her sudden aggression. Losing one's name is so bad that one is willing to enslave their own friend just for a chance to get out.

Season Three

• The entire Battle of the Nest takes a grim turn the moment the fact that there exists one portal that connects it to.... Lo Po Bia's Battleship. This means that any time, the most powerful warriors of the Lo Po Bia Family can enter the Nest anytime. And to make it worse, the Family Head of Lo Po Bia can also enter if he wants to. It's not the elite warriors that warranted Evankhell's desire to destroy the portal, it's just the Family Head coming there and destroying the FUG forces, which she clearly believes he could do. As the Family Head most loyal to Zahard, he may be the weakest, but it speaks volumes of just how powerful the Great Warriors are, which makes it more horrifying when you remember that Bam will most likely have to eventually face them in battle.
  • Not to mention that Yasratcha who has been kicking Yama's ass all over before and is doubtlessly one of the strongest Lo Po Bia warriors states that he and Yama are simply cute pets compared to the power of the god of the Lo Po Bia Family. That's right. The power of a top 100 High Ranker is nothing before the gods that are the Great Warriors.
    • It gets worse with the revelation that the Lo Po Bia Family will soon go to war with the Po Bidau Family. We have to remember that while Gustang is higher-ranked, rankings do not determine power. What if Lo Po Bia Traumerei is the superior Family Head? As much of a Smug Super and a cold person Gustang is, he is still the only Family Head who is close to Bam's side. If Gustang were to lose to Traumerei, then Bam would lose a potential ally who can be of great help.
  • And the next arc title after Bam humiliates and defeats White? It's the One High Above.... And the person mentioned to be someone that powerful is none other but Lo Po Bia Traumerei, the Family Head himself! His arrival on the Nest is inevitable indeed....
  • Finally, Evankhell destroys one of the Portals.... Only for her actions to instead summon the 3 top-ranking Branch Heads who are guards of the Family Head's inevitable arrival. At the end of the chapter that has them ready to warp to the Nest, Lo Po Bia Traumerei is seen in his throne, shrouded in darkness, but clearly ready to go as soon as his guards arrive. And the next chapter, exactly that happens! Lo Po Bia Traumerei appears sitting in his throne. He has the appearance of a child with his arms crossed, detached, as if he's simply overviewing something insignificant, but when he finally speaks, he only has one line that ends the chapter and signifies the horrifying possibility that Bam will indeed have to fight a Family Head soon:
  Traumerei: Where is the boy? The one who came from outside the Tower.'''

  • And indeed, exactly that happens! It took a while, but Traumerei now has met Bam..... And Bam doesn't even have it in him to fight Traumerei. He states outright that Traumerei can and will kill him without much effort. If his complete and utter manhandling of Yama and Yasratcha aren't enough, this displays just how little the powers of "Top 100 High Rankers" are compared to the god-level Family Heads.
  • Yasratcha and Wangwang's past further makes Traumerei even more terrifying. He gives the appearance of an extremely powerful god-like entity who is depicted as effectively a Hopeless Boss Fight. The cunning Yasratcha trying to trick him, he easily sees through it, and the Ancient Akrinak gets utterly wrecked by him as he summons a creature who is even bigger than the Ancient and then he utterly decimates Nen Neya. Made worse when you remember that Traumerei wasn't using a Fishbowl at all. He makes commanding such a strong creature look effortless, reminding us exactly why he is the greatest Anima in the Tower, and he makes it clear that he may be dismissive and callous, but he is far from being stupid. When he inevitably fights, life will get significantly harder for Bam the way he is now.
    • But even more terrifying than his power is his personality. It's already a bit of an intimidating sight to see just how obsessed he is with dominating and controlling, but even though he seems to display some remnants of humanity, that humanity showing itself in such twisted ways and ultimately being quickly overcome by his obsession can be pretty shocking and even more horrifying than just him being a Jerkass Control Freak. He appears more like a Yandere seeking to keep his dog completely loyal to him, as if he does acknowledge his loyalty but wants to break him into being completely submissive, gets angry rather quickly whenever Wangwang shows some doubts, even calling him "My dog" as if asserting a genuine but deeply possessive desire to keep him, and when Wangwang actually ponders attacking him, all that care is gone in a heartbeat. Even his last bone towards Wangwang is given in a pretty cruel way that makes it clear he is pissed that he didn't get a completely devoted loyal dog, and considering his present treatment of Yasratcha, his turning a blind eye to his betrayal may well be a Cruel Mercy that makes even Yasratcha's Cruel to Be Kind towards Yamaa and Doom look pretty nice in comparison.
  • And it's not even the end of it. As Traumerei reveals, it's not just him. The other Family Heads are aware of Bam. At the very least, there is the fact that most of them prefer Bam to keep climbing undeterred.... But there is also the nightmarish fact that the current situation means the Family Heads are essentially free to act anytime they like. Considering how much of a Hopeless Boss Fight Traumerei is, even in the future after Bam has grown powerful enough to defeat a Family Head, just how much damage will fights between such god-level individuals be? And if Bam is forcibly pitted against them when he isn't ready, what can and will Bam do?